Area school officials struggle with funding issues

November 21, 2002|By: News-Review Staff

By News-Review Staff

School officials in one local district plan to explore how they might deal with a possible cut in state school aid in the coming year, but a state legislator said such a funding reduction is rather unlikely.

While administrators from several of the area's other schools said reductions would pose challenges for their organizations, they added that they're waiting on clearer information about the possibility before formulating responses.

Charlevoix Public Schools superintendent John Sturock noted the possibility of a reduction in basic state school funding during a school board meeting earlier this week.

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"The state of Michigan is hurting for dollars. Originally we heard there would be a zero percent increase (in school funding), that would be a good scenario," Sturock said. "Now we're hearing there could be a five percent reduction across the board."

The Charlevoix school board plans to be proactive by forming a committee to review and contain costs in February for the 2003-2004 school year. Previously, the budget was reviewed in May.

Given what he's heard from those close to the appropriations process in the legislature, state Rep. Scott Shackleton said he's doubtful that cuts of that magnitude in the per-pupil grants to schools would occur.

"Next spring, we'll deal with the next budget, but I can't imagine the Legislature would reduce the foundation grant," the Sault Ste. Marie Republican said. "It's highly, highly unlikely."

Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District superintendent Mark Eckhardt said he hadn't yet received definitive information about how much of an impact the state's budget crunch would have on school aid.

"They don't even know in Lansing right now," he said. "It's a political game right now. With the election, there's going to be a lot of pointing fingers."

Until reasonably certain figures are presented in the coming months, Eckhardt said his organization won't be in a position to explore scenarios for program cutbacks.

"It would be a waste of our time to do that," he said.

The intermediate school district receives state dollars for vocational, special education and other programs in a variety of forms, coming from Michigan's general and school aid funds.

John Jeffrey, Sturock's counterpart in Petoskey schools, said he's waiting for more definitive information on next year's state funding levels before discussing specifics on how to deal with them with others in the district.

"I've been watching state budgets for more than 20 years," he said. "In watching them, it's good not to panic."

Still, Jeffrey said Charlevoix school officials' exploration of how to address a possible revenue loss seems prudent under the state's financial circumstances. He added that schools' best hope for next year seems to be breaking even with the current-year grant levels.

"We are being told that the best we can hope for next year is to maintain the $6,700 per student," Jeffrey said.

If a cut like the one Charlevoix school officials have heard about were to occur, Jeffrey said the district's cash reserves likely would help in absorbing the impact during the first year. In such a situation, he said Petoskey school officials likely would need to explore moving back any spending on capital resources that could easily be postponed as well.

"Our budget is pretty darned conservative and prudent as possible," he said. "We don't have too much discretionary spending to cut."

In the East Jordan school district, superintendent Chip Hansen said officials have heard rumors about the state budget similar to those discussed in Charlevoix.

"We're planning on tougher times," he said.

For East Jordan, a 1,300-student district, a 5 percent cut in the foundation grant would amount to half a million dollars.

"It would be pretty devastating. But we're a growing district with an increasing enrollment, which could help offsets any cuts.

Hansen said he had some fear the rumor could be true.

"Knowing it (the truth) early will be helpful," he said. "We've already looked at our 2003/4 school year budget; we'll be honing in on it over the Christmas break and fine tuning it the next three or four months."

Bill Tebbe, superintendent at Pellston Public Schools, said Pellston Schools have been maintaining their present programs only with the help from state funds for declining enrollment.

"We survived this year, but next year I'm not holding any bets," he said. "I don't think the state's financial statements have improved any. If we don't get what we should be getting per pupil, we won't be able to do it."

Tebbe said that while he hadn't heard anything personally about the potential cuts, he already knows what kind of effect it could have on his school district.

"Our costs continue to go up, particularly in health care. And coupled with declining enrollment, any decline in the foundation grant would have a devastating effect on Pellston," he said.